Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, TikTok called the BuzzFeed report “misleading.”
“Like many global companies, TikTok has engineering teams around the world,” TikTok said. “We employ access controls like encryption and security monitoring to secure user data, and the access approval process is overseen by our US-based security team. TikTok has consistently maintained that our engineers in locations outside of the US, including China, can be granted access to U.S. user data on an as-needed basis under those strict controls.”
For years, US officials have expressed concerns that Chinese government access to US users’ data or communications could put national security at risk. But whether Carr’s plea will work is uncertain.
The FCC plays no role in regulating internet-based services such as app stores, and prior efforts by the US government to ban TikTok from US app stores have faltered amid court challenges. Decisions about how and whether the FCC should act would require buy-in from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who leads the independent federal agency.
Carr wrote in his letter that he was not assured by the announcement. “TikTok has long claimed that its U.S. user data has been stored on servers in the U.S. and yet those representations provided no protection against the data being accessed from Beijing,” he said. “Indeed, TikTok’s statement that ‘100% of US user traffic is being routed to Oracle’ says nothing about where that data can be accessed from.”
